Good morning y'all. I'm a 55 y.o. male with CAD and an un-diagnosed heart attack; had surgery in '22 for a single coronary artery bypass and an AAA (ascending aortic aneurysm) repair (4.6 cm). Had some difficulty oxygenating well after surgery, so I was on a ventilator for a couple of days after the surgery. Once I was released, I went through recovery at home alone. Word to the wise- never order groceries when high on painkillers, unless you REALLY like surprises.
I've also got fairly severe hypertension (if unmedicated, it skyrockets into hypertensive crisis range), and have a couple of other artery blockages, mostly in the 30%-60% range. The outlier is a 100% occluded LAD, but the cardiologist who performed my last heart cath said that there is adequate collateral circulation so it's not as much of a risk (my LAD is just a nub at this point).
Over the past year or so I began having episodes of heart palpitations, a feeling of heaviness in my chest, sometimes chest or back pain along with it (more of a dull ache), dizziness, mild nausea at times. They mainly seem to happen when I'm highly stressed about something.. work, finances, arguments with my wife, etc, and leave me super tired, sometimes for a day afterwards. Given my history, I ended up going to the ER a couple of times, mostly out of an overabundance of caution. I was told that the episodes were likely stress-induced angina.
This happened again a few days ago, with the added perk of my strength totally leaving my legs when I was removing a low-mounted server from a server rack (I work in IT). I was also experiencing the same angina symptoms; once they passed, I felt weak & shaky for several hours. I ended up going to a clinic to get checked out, and was told the same thing by the ER doc. However, this time, my CT scan showed a 4.6 cm dilation of my aortic root, just below the last repair. It's the same size as my AAA when it was repaired.. no idea why the ER doc didn't mention it. I've got a request to schedule an app't with a cardiologist for further examination.. I almost don't want to, because man alive, that heart surgery was a bitch to get through.
Has anyone else had an aneurysm recur after a repair? If so, what size was it when/if surgery was recommended? I feel like this is stressing me out much more than it should.